Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories.

Memory is a snare, pure and simple; it alters, it subtly rearranges the past to fit the present.

A novel which persuades us of its truth is true however full of lies it may be

Once upon a time, there was a boy who learned to read at the age of 5. This changed his life. Owing to the adventure tales he read, he discovered a way to escape from the poor house, the poor country, and the poor reality in which he lived.

That is one thing I am sure of amid my many uncertainties regarding the literary vocation: deep inside, a writer feels that writing is the best thing that ever happened to him, or could ever happen to him, because as far as he is concerned, writing is the best possible way of life, never mind the social, political, or financial rewards of what he might achieve through it.

No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing.

Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories.